Articles

Elsevier,

One Earth, Volume 2, 20 March 2020

A grand challenge facing humanity is how to produce food for a growing population in the face of a changing climate and environmental degradation. Although empirical evidence remains sparse, management strategies that increase environmental sustainability, such as increasing agroecosystem diversity through crop rotations, may also increase resilience to weather extremes without sacrificing yields.

Elsevier,

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 120, March 2020

Smart home technologies refer to devices that provide some degree of digitally connected, automated, or enhanced services to building occupants. Smart homes have become central in recent technology and policy discussions about energy efficiency, climate change, and the sustainability of buildings. Nevertheless, do they truly promote sustainability goals? In addition, what sorts of benefits, risks, and policies do they entail?

Elsevier,

Scientific African, Volume 7, March 2020

Increased demand for food to feed the ever-growing population led to development and adoption of synthetic chemicals as a quick and effective strategy of managing crop pests and diseases. However, overreliance on synthetic pesticides is discouraged due to their detrimental effects on human health, the environment, and development of resistant pest and pathogen strains. This, coupled with increasing demand for organically produced foods, stimulated search for alternative approaches and botanical pesticides are particularly gaining importance.

Elsevier,

Journal of Cancer Policy, Volume 23, March 2020

Focusses on the impact of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi in New Zealand and its effects on healthcare within indigenous Maori populations in the country
Elsevier,

The Lancet Global Health, Volume 8, March 2020

This study supports SDG 3 and 10 by analysing data from 415 ethnic groups in 36 low-income and middle-income countries, and showing substantial ethnic disparities in under-5 mortality across the countries studied. These findings are crucial for monitoring trends and examining the impact of health interventions on child survival across different ethnic groups.
Elsevier, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 8, March 2020
Background: The WHO elimination strategy for hepatitis C virus advocates scaling up screening and treatment to reduce global hepatitis C incidence by 80% by 2030, but little is known about how this reduction could be achieved and the costs of doing so. We aimed to evaluate the effects and cost of different strategies to scale up screening and treatment of hepatitis C in Pakistan and determine what is required to meet WHO elimination targets for incidence.
Elsevier,

Mental Health and Physical Activity, Volume 18, March 2020

How physical activity improves mental health.
Biological foundations of the CoQ6-bypassing HTS method.
Elsevier,

SLAS Discovery, Volume 25, 1 March 2020

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) deficiency syndrome is a rare disease included in the family of mitochondrial diseases, which is a heterogeneous group of genetic disorders characterized by defective energy production. CoQ10 biosynthesis in humans requires at least 11 gene products acting in a multiprotein complex within mitochondria. The high-throughput screening (HTS) method based on the stabilization of the CoQ biosynthesis complex (Q-synthome) produced by the COQ8 gene overexpression is proven here to be a successful method for identifying new molecules from natural extracts that are able to bypass the CoQ6 deficiency in yeast mutant cells. The main features of the new approach are the combination of two yeast targets defective in genes with different functions on CoQ6 biosynthesis to secure the versatility of the molecule identified, the use of glycerol as a nonfermentable carbon source providing a wide growth window, and the stringent conditions required to mark an extract as positive. The application of this pilot approach to a representative subset of 1200 samples of the Library of Natural Products of Fundación MEDINA resulted in the finding of nine positive extracts. The fractionation of three of the nine extracts allowed the identification of five molecules; two of them are present in molecule databases of natural extracts and three are nondescribed molecules. The use of this screening method opens the possibility of discovering molecules with CoQ10-bypassing action useful as therapeutic agents to fight against mitochondrial diseases in human patients.
Chioma Blaise Chikere, 2017 second prize winner of the Green Sustainable Chemistry Challenge
Elsevier,

3rd March 2020

In 2017, Chioma Blaise Chikere was awarded the second prize of the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge. Her project “Eco-restoration of crude oil-polluted land in Nigeria” demonstrated how organic nutrients such as garden fertilizers and animal excreta can be used to degrade hydrocarbons, cleaning up the soils heavily contaminated by decades of oil spills and advancing SDGs 6, 13 and 15. Three years later, we caught up with Dr. Chikere to learn about her research journey.
Elsevier, Heliyon, Volume 6, February 2020
Background: Pregnancy is characterized with several physical and mental changes in women. These changes cause mental health problems in pregnant women and especially in nulliparous women. Objective: To determine the effects of cognitive-behavioral counseling on mental health of pregnant women. Method: The study was carried out as a quality of life clinical trial with a control group. The participants were 60 pregnant women (less than 20 weeks) who visited Kamyaran-based health centers (Iran) in 2018. The participants were allocated randomly to experiment and control groups (n = 30 each).

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